The oven disclosed herein relates primarily to ovens suitable for use in the commercial food service industry, such as fast food restaurants, and other food service application where there is great variety in the food products prepared, the need for speedy thermalization of food and space constraints. While various oven designs are known and available for commercial food service applications, there still exists a need for an efficient and effective oven that allows for simultaneous cooking of different food products requiring different heat treatments. Single cavity ovens have been designed heretofore that include microwave and convection heat transfer cooking means. While such ovens meet the needs of certain commercial food service applications by providing rapid thermalization and cooking, the inability to cook different foods simultaneously with different heating conditions and cook cycles does not provide needed flexibility. Furthermore, known combination ovens often require mechanical means to stir the microwave or move the food product in order to achieve even microwave heat transfer to the food product.
The present invention provides an oven that meets a need in the food service industry for an oven provides rapid heating/cooking and the ability to cook multiple food products simultaneously under different conditions and cook cycles. Moreover, the ovens of the present invention provide a microwave heating means that does not require mechanical stirring of microwaves or movement of food products to achieve substantially uniform distribution of microwave energy into the cooking cavities of the oven.